Scientists and novelists share insights into the enduring mystery of human consciousness BY JAY TOLSON Four years ago, as he tells it, philosopher Colin McGinn met the English novelist Edward St Aubyn at a conference on human consciousness at the University of Arizona. A couple of years later, McGinn discovered that he had become a character in St Aubyn's new novel, A Clue to the Exit. "McGinn," Charlie Fairburn (the screenwriter-protagonist who has been told that he has only six months to live), and others are returning on a train from an Oxford conference on consciousness. Amid much heady talk, "McGinn" provides Fairburn with an argument for why science will never adequately explain what consciousness is (an argument that the real McGinn published in his 1999 book, The Mysterious Flame).Perhaps paradoxically, the explanation brings Fairburn peace of mind. Although this story within a story does not appear in David Lodge's new book, Consciousness & the Novel, it is an apt illustration of the phenomenon to which he calls attention: Consciousness, though long an indirect concern of fiction, has recently become the explicit preoccupation of many literary novelists–at the same time that scientists in many fields have taken a renewed interest in the subject. This is more than a coincidence, Lodge says. It is a conjunction of interests that illuminates both the problem of consciousness andthe respective methods, goals, and limitations of the novelists and scientists who are engaged with it. Even more valuable to Lodge, who is a novelist and a former professor of literature at the University of Birmingham, the two ways of looking at consciousness shed new light on the old questions of how literature does what it does and even ''why literature exists, why we need it, and why we value it." On the science side, Lodge points to a confluence of new approaches, theories, and technologies. These include advances in computer science that give promise of constructing artificial intelligence and even consciousness itself; a new understanding of the neurochemistry behind different mental states and moods; and a host of brain-scanning and brain-imaging techniques. All have boosted confidence that close scrutiny of the brain (the hardware) will eventually explain mind and consciousness (the software), thus dissolving the mystery of the "ghost in the machine." Copyright © 2002 U.S. News & World Report, L.P.

Keyword: Intelligence
Link ID: 3159 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The sound of a robin chirping in winter is a good sign, say scientists. It means the bird has built up enough fat reserves to survive the cold nights and has enough energy left to defend its territory. The bird traditionally sings in spring to attract a mate but in winter, when food is short, it faces a dilemma. Should it spend its time hunting for food to get through the next cold snap or burst into song? Researchers in the west of England think they have the answer: the bird sings at dawn if it has enough energy left over from keeping warm at night. It is all part of a complicated biological mechanism to regulate fat reserves. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Communication; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3158 - Posted: 12.11.2002

By ERICA GOODE Scientists have known for some time that people who suffer from schizophrenia show abnormalities in the structure of their brains. But in a new study, researchers for the first time have detected similar abnormalities in brain scans of people who were considered at high risk for schizophrenia or other psychotic illnesses but who did not yet have full-blown symptoms. Those abnormalities, the study found, became even more marked once the illness was diagnosed. The subjects in the study who went on to develop psychoses had less gray matter in brain areas involved in attention and higher mental processes like planning, emotion and memory, the researchers found. Copyright The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Brain imaging
Link ID: 3157 - Posted: 12.11.2002

"Imagine the possible benefit for people traumatized by haunting memories of terror or tragedy. The day may come when the cure is recalling the trauma, and then erasing it with a shot", wondered Dallas Morning News reporter Tom Siegfried (Aug. 28, 2000) commenting on Dr. Karim Nader's discovery that a fear memory induced in a rat and reactivated after 1 -12 days of storage in the outer part of the brain could be eradicated with a shot of anisomycin, a protein-synthesis inhibitor. Two years after the publication of "Fear memories require protein synthesis in the amygdala for reconsolidation after retrieval" in the August 14, 2000 issue of Nature, Dr. Nader and his colleague from New York University , neuroscientist Joseph E. Ledoux, published in the October 24, 2002, issue of Neuron, an article which shows that the same reconsolidation process goes on in another part of the brain which mediates conscious memories, the hippocampus. "Whether we speak of rats or human beings, we store memories in analogous areas of the brain," say Dr. Nader, now a professor in the McGill Department of Psychology. " Our first findings were based on earlier work identifying the amygdala as a site at which neural changes that underlies auditory fear learning occur. It is a kind of learning that can happen unconsciously. We found evidence that contradicts entrenched psychological and neurobiological models of memory. Current theories posit that memories are processed by our brain initially as sensitive, labile short-term memories (stm) and then get stored as long-term memories (ltm). the transition from stm to ltm is mediated by the production of proteins.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Emotions
Link ID: 3156 - Posted: 12.11.2002

USF study suggests new targets for antidepressants Tampa, FL— A well-tolerated drug that blocks nicotine receptors in the brain appears to relieve depression and mood instability in children and adolescents with Tourette's syndrome, a preliminary study by University of South Florida College of Medicine researchers has found. The multicenter, placebo-controlled study of the drug mecamylamine is published in the latest issue of the journal Depression and Anxiety. "These preliminary findings are consistent with anecdotal observations that mecamylamine stabilizes mood," said lead author Douglas Shytle, PhD, assistant professor in the USF Departments of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. "In addition, this is the first clinical evidence supporting the hypothesis that many antidepressants function, in part, by inhibiting nicotinic receptors."

Keyword: Depression; Tourettes
Link ID: 3155 - Posted: 06.24.2010

COLLEGE STATION, – Sure Santa Claus asks boys and girls what toys they want, but, why they want them is a better question. The answer may have to do with a biological pre-wiring that influences boys' and girls' preferences based on the early roles of males and females, says a Texas A&M University psychologist. It's commonly believed that boys and girls learn what types of toys they should like based solely on society's expectations, but psychologist Gerianne Alexander's work with vervet monkeys is challenging that notion. Alexander, whose research focuses on sex differences in behavior and the biological factors that influence them, examined the monkeys as they interacted with toys. She and her collaborator, Melissa Hines of the University of London, found that the monkeys' toy preferences were consistent along gender lines with those of human children. The study was published earlier this year in "Evolution and Human Behavior."

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 3154 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Synthetic chemicals related to cannabis could eventually be turned into new medications to combat anxiety and depression without the side effects of the recreational drug, suggest US researchers. The team of researchers, from the University of California, Irvine, also reveal how anxiety is controlled by a network of natural compounds in the body, known as the anandamide system, which govern pain and mood. Although cannabis relieves anxiety by working on the same system there are side effects of the drug’s active ingredient tetra-hydrocannabinol (THC) that can include increased appetite, dry mouth, clumsiness and apathy. © HMG Worldwide 2002-1

Keyword: Emotions; Stress
Link ID: 3153 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Is it possible that overweight people get more pleasure from eating? Studies of brain activity indicate that this may be why obese people are prone to overeat. Jill Henninger has struggled to control her diet and her weight. "My eating habits were getting out of my control," she says. Brain specialists at Brookhaven National Labs have found obese people have less control over their eating habits than originally thought because they get more pleasure from eating. © Copyright 2000 - 2002 WorldNow and WAVE.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 3152 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Brain scans could help to predict which people at high risk of psychosis will actually go on to develop the disorder, say scientists. Psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are associated with changes in specific brain areas. However, it is unclear whether these changes occur before the onset of psychosis or while the illness is developing. Researchers used MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scans to examine the structure of the brain of people at risk of psychosis before and after the onset of illness. In total the researchers, from the University of Melbourne in Australia and the University of Cambridge, carried out scans on 75 people at high risk of psychosis. Over the following year 23 of them developed psychosis. (C) BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Brain imaging
Link ID: 3151 - Posted: 12.10.2002

A defect of the immune system may be to blame for some cases of the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. Scientists have found evidence that the conditions may be the result of autoimmune disorders similar to those that are thought to cause multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, analysed blood samples from women diagnosed with anorexia, bulimia or both conditions for the presence of immune system chemicals called antibodies. In normal circumstances antibodies attack infections and other foreign bodies that pose a threat to the body. But when things go wrong they can turn against the tissues of the body itself. (C) BBC

Keyword: Obesity; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 3150 - Posted: 12.10.2002

Borneo's male tree-hole frog varies pitch to lure mate David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Consider the male tree-hole frog of Borneo, which uses his watery den like a pipe organ to proclaim his sexiness far and wide. Evolution has surely outdone itself over the millennia in endowing this tiny frog called Metaphrynella sundana with a uniquely musical strategy and an instinctive ability to exploit the science of acoustics to summon a choosy mate. The tropical amphibian, barely an inch long, inhabits Borneo's lowland rain forest where deep holes in the soft wood of tree trunks become miniature ponds when it pours -- which is often. ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle.

Keyword: Hearing; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3149 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS WADE Now that the mouse's genome has been decoded, revealing just as many genes as its host, the 25 million mice that work in laboratories throughout the world may be demanding a lot more respect. It is the close cousinship that makes this vast labor force of furry little human surrogates so useful for exploring the human genome. Many of the ills that humans inherit occur or can be generated in mice, making them models for studying how disease works in people. There are obese mice, mice with heart problems and even mice being developed as models for psychiatric diseases like autism and schizophrenia. Because so much biomedical research is undertaken in mice, many laboratories now have to incur the large extra costs of operating mouse colonies. Nothing can so much incite a colleague's displeasure as sending a mouse with some pox that decimates the guest mouse colony. So mice, neatly stacked in wire baskets, are kept in germ-free high-containment rooms where they are fed and pampered and kept scrupulously free of mouse and human germs. Copyright The New York Times Company

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3148 - Posted: 12.10.2002

By SARA ROBINSON As chief scientist of the Internet portal Yahoo, Dr. Udi Manber had a profound problem: how to differentiate human intelligence from that of a machine. His concern was more than academic. Rogue computer programs masquerading as teenagers were infiltrating Yahoo chat rooms, collecting personal information or posting links to Web sites promoting company products. Spam companies were creating havoc by writing programs that swiftly registered for hundreds of free Yahoo e-mail accounts then used them for bulk mailings. "What we needed," said Dr. Manber, "was a simple way of telling a human user from a computer program." Copyright The New York Times Company

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 3147 - Posted: 12.10.2002

By NATALIE ANGIER Not long ago in Zion National Park in southern Utah, a couple of hikers — O.K., one of them was this writer — came upon a big and handsome Western rattlesnake off to the side of the trail. The snake was coiled on a rocky outcropping just below eye level, sunning itself, as ectotherms love to do. A dappled velvet cable at home on the checkerboard stage of the desert. Soon, a throng of other hikers had gathered round to gawk, leaning in to take pictures and then squealing excitedly as the snake snapped its head toward a camera flash with a withering glower. When a park ranger arrived to see what the fuss was about and said yes, it was a real rattlesnake with genuine venom in its fangs, a teenage girl in the throng breathed out a sentiment surely shared by the group: "That is so cool! I've never seen one of these things outside a zoo before." Is there anything cooler than a snake or more evocative of such a rich sinusoidal range of sensations? Snakes are beckoning. Snakes are terrifying. Snakes are elegant, their skins like poured geometry. Copyright The New York Times Company

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Evolution
Link ID: 3146 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Philadelphia, PA) –While type 1 Neurofibromatosis (NF1) is primarily known to cause tumors of the nervous system, scientists were puzzled as to why patients with NF1 are also prone to cardiovascular problems such as hypertension and congenital heart disease. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have solved this particular part of the puzzle by showing how the Nf1 gene – which is mutated in those suffering from Neurofibromatosis – is also essential in endothelial cells, the cells that make up blood vessels. Type 1 Neurofibromatosis affects many children, occurring in one in every 4,000 births. The researchers believe their findings may result in new therapeutics for NF1, as well as provide validation of an animal model for the disease. Their findings will appear online today in advance of publication in the January issue of the journal Nature Genetics.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3145 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Louis, -- Brain regions involved in movement and feeling appear to remain relatively healthy and active even years after the body has been paralyzed, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. A team of investigators found that five years after complete paralysis from a severe spinal cord injury, areas of the brain normally responsible for some movements and feelings have maintained those capabilities in one quadriplegic. "The fact that there is stability in the brain despite a lack of input from the body is very good news," says Maurizio Corbetta, M.D., head of stroke and brain injury rehabilitation. "However, longer studies with more patients will have to be conducted to learn more about what this means for recovery after spinal cord injury." Corbetta, who also is associate professor of neurology, of radiology and of anatomy and neurobiology, led the study along with Harold Burton, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology, of cell biology and physiology and of radiology. The findings are scheduled to appear online the second week in December and in the Dec. 24 print issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 3144 - Posted: 12.10.2002

Seven years after actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed from a spinal cord injury, tests show his brain has maintained a near-normal ability to detect feeling and direct movement. The finding suggests the "use it or lose it" rule may not apply to the brain after all, experts say. By Brian Branch-Price, AP Years of research has shown in animals that when the spinal cord is severed, cutting off signals to parts of the brain, then the brain will reorganize itself and eventually not respond to signals from the paralyzed part of the body. But a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis using a MRI technique shows that may not be true for Reeve. "We see evidence of some reorganization in this patient," said Dr. Maurizio Corbetta, a Washington University neurology researcher. "But we also see strong evidence for stability ... which goes against the principle of 'use it or lose it.'" Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. © Copyright 2002 USA TODAY

Keyword: Regeneration; Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 3143 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Findings based on 'knock-out' mice detailed in the journal Physiology and Behavior AMHERST, Mass. – A team led by University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Deborah J. Good has identified a gene that appears to play a role in obesity, physical activity, and sex behaviors in mice. Good works with so-called "knock-out" mice, which have a specific gene deleted. Scientists then monitor the animals for changes in their physiology and behavior, in an effort to determine the gene's role. Her findings are detailed in the current issue of the journal Physiology and Behavior. The project is funded with a four-year, $1 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and a two-year, $70,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, both of the National Institutes of Health. Good is studying the mechanisms in the brain and nervous system that regulate appetite and body weight. Although more than 20 genes have been implicated in the regulation of body weight, the mechanisms through which these genes work remain unclear, she says. Recent evidence by Good suggests that a gene called Nhlh2 plays a key role in the regulation of genes controlling body weight, as well as physical activity levels and mating behavior.

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3142 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn. -- Yale School of Medicine neurobiologists Pasko Rakic, M.D., the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor and Chair of Neurobiology and Patricia Goldman-Rakic, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Neurobiology, jointly received the distinguished Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience at the 2002 Society of Neuroscience meeting on November 3. The Society for Neuroscience endows the Gerard Prize, sponsored by Eli Lilly & Co., to honor and recognize outstanding contributions to the field of neuroscience research. The prize, a plaque and an honorarium, is named after Ralph W. Gerard, who was instrumental as a founding father of the Society for Neuroscience and who served as its honorary president from 1970 until his death in 1974. The fact that eleven of the previous recipients have also received the Nobel Prize indicates its significance and prestige in the field of neuroscience. Fred H. Gage, current president of the Society, announced before the more than 3,000 attendees of the ceremony, that both Drs. Rakic and Goldman-Rakic were recognized for their "extraordinary" contributions to present understanding of the cerebral cortex. Gage said that the cerebral cortex is considered one of the most complex structures in the human brain and in biology, but is often shunned by researchers. However, the Rakic's have devoted their independent careers to exploring the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which it evolves and mediates the highest mental functions and their dissolution in various brain disorders.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3141 - Posted: 12.10.2002

Cells get survival signals even when the axon cannot internalize large beads By Rabiya S. Tuma The reports of two research groups interested in retrograde signaling caught the attention of investigators at the recent Society for Neuroscience (SFN)meeting; the teams used similar methods but arrived at two distinct conclusions. One team says that there is only one way to send nerve growth factor (NGF) signals from the axon to the cell body. The other group thinks that this retrograde signaling occurs in another way. Previously, scientists thought that when NGF bound to TrkA receptors at the axon tip, the complex was internalized into a vesicle and shipped back up the length of the axon to the cell body, where the complex conveys a signal for survival and growth. But Bronwyn MacInnis and Bob Campenot, Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta, have caused a minor earthquake in the field of retrograde signaling with their results.1 Many scientists, including David Kaplan of the Research Institute at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, see merit in the new thought process. "Bob's work has changed the paradigm." ©2002, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Apoptosis; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 3140 - Posted: 06.24.2010